Boulder Valley school food project launches fundraising campaign

LAFAYETTE -- The principal and teachers at Sanchez Elementary School talked up the spaghetti squash, served at lunchtime Tuesday along with roasted chicken.

Though most students were suspicious, a few agreed to try it. Others ate the roasted potatoes, fresh pears or couscous salad from the school's salad bar.

"If the adults are enthusiastic about it, the kids will try it," said Sanchez Principal Doris Candelarie. "We're getting them to try different things. They've tried jicama, beets, apricots, plums. Many of them haven't had a lot of the fresher food. They've had to change their palates."

Halfway into a three-year effort to make school lunches healthier, the Boulder Valley School District's School Food Project on Tuesday announced a fundraising campaign and a $100,000 matching grant from the Luff Family Foundation. The fundraising effort, "Healthy Bodies = Healthy Minds," is online at bvsd.giveo.com.

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Last school year, the new healthy food program lost money. This year, the program has made cuts and is pushing to get 1,000 more students across the district to buy a school lunch each day.

"I don't know if we'll break even this year, but we're going in the right direction," said Ann Cooper, director of Boulder Valley nutrition services.

The goal of the fundraising campaign is to raise $150,000 in addition to the $100,000 matching grant.

Cooper said the money would allow the food service program to finish paying the school district back for the construction costs for five regional kitchens that began operating this year. The money also would help pay for the switch from disposable serving items to reusable ones, with reusable plates, utensils and trays in all elementary schools, one middle and one high school.

To increase school lunch participation, the district has recruited about 175 parent volunteers to help spread the word about its healthy meals. Interns also conduct menu item tastings at schools to encourage more students to buy a hot lunch. Plans also are in the works for a second student "Iron Chef" competition for a new menu item.

"We're really trying to work with schools and work with parents," Cooper said. "We're definitely making progress."

The food program restructuring was the result of a survey that Boulder Valley hired California-based Lunch Lessons LLC to conduct of its food-service operation in 2008. After reviewing Boulder Valley's food that year, Cooper -- the Lunch Lessons founder -- issued a scathing report and a long list of suggestions.

She recommended the district offer all students access to a salad bar, nix processed ingredients and move to centralized kitchens where chefs make meals from scratch for all of the district's students. The district hired Cooper as its interim director of nutrition services, and she is continuing to oversee the changes.

The district is paying for the changes -- and for Cooper's work -- through community donations.

Last school year, participation was up just 2 percent over the previous year -- while a 10 percent participation increase was needed to make up for a significant, and expected, drop in "a la carte" sales. The result: The program was $360,000 in the hole.

Participation in the new lunch program varied by community. In Boulder, Louisville and Superior, students were eating 80,000 more school lunches last year. But in Lafayette and Broomfield, students bought 55,000 fewer meals.

Calla Rakes, left, a fourth-grader at Sanchez Elementary School in Lafayette, reacts after tasting spaghetti squash as part of her school lunch Tuesday. Xitlaly Corchado, right, decided not to try hers after seeing Calla's face.
( MARTY CAIVANO)

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